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Book: People over Profit

“People Over Profit: Break The System. Live With Purpose. Be More Successful.” by Dale Partridge.

I bought this book for its high rating on Amazon. With recent news about the company’s workplace culture, this book can offer a few tips of improvement. Here are my notes:

“Cell-phone and satellite-dish companies force multi-year contracts on their customers”

This was necessary due to subsidies. With recent announcement from Verizon to follow T-Mobile’s footsteps of moving to no-contract plans, such business practice are gradually being abandoned to adopt changing consumer preferences.

“But in order to truly affect change, we must learn to address the why before we understand how to fix the what.”

“No company starts out dirty, because they cannot afford to. They have to convince consumers they are worth their time and money. When you’re unknown entity, it’s deadly to be recognized as unethical, impersonal, or misleading. As a result, your focus is the industrious pursuit of customer loyalty and your mission to create nothing short of an incredible and memorable experience.”

“Tyson adopted and even pioneered some of today’s controversial efficient factory farming systems. The company began engaging in practices such as loading up chickens with antibiotics and growth hormones to pack chicks closer, get them fatter faster, and get them to the public sooner.”

“As Jim Collins, author of How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In, writes: Launching headlong into activities that do not fit with your economic or resource engine is undisciplined. Addiction to scale is undisciplined. To neglect your core business while you leap after exciting new adventures is undisciplined. To use the organization primarily as a vehicle to increase your own personal success–more wealth, more fame, more power–at the expense of its long-term success is undisciplined. To compromise your values or lose sight of your core purpose in pursuit of growth and expansion is undisciplined.”

7 core beliefs:

People Matter

“Organizations can’t just look out for executives. Or board members. Or shareholders. Or high-dollar customers. A person who is purchasing goods and services from a company is as important as those who are selling them or brainstorming new ones from a corporate conference room. The customer in Wichita, Kansas, must be valued alongside the marketing executives in Midtown Manhattan, the warehouse worker in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the sales clerk in Phoenix, Arizona, and the manufacturers in Kunshan, China.”

“We have learned that what drives people more than anything is purpose. Not pay and benefits, but purpose.”

“fire others the way you would want to be fired.”

Truth Wins

“‘We lie all the time, and it wears us out,’ says Brad Blanton, psychotherapist and author of Radical Honesty. ‘We manage our companies through a series of delusional cliches: ‘The customer is always right’; ‘I’m not angry’; ‘We’re proceeding according to plan.’ But we all know better than that. Lying takes a huge toll in terms of stress, anxiety, and depression.”

“A commitment to honesty begins with executives.”

“In their book, Tell the Truth: Honesty Is Your Most Powerful Marketing Tool, they stated, ‘Brands that have a process for telling the truth are likely to sell more products, make more money, and keep more customers loyal–through any medium, in every market.'”

Transparency Frees

“When transparency is lacking, speculation is abundant. If you’re not open with others, they will naturally assume you have something to hide. And when people are uncertain, people talk. So the selective sharing of information or the refusal to allow others access is one of the fastest way to create negative brand buzz. Building an openhanded rather than closefisted company turns out to be a great business strategy.”

But in business, vulnerability woks differently than in other realms of life. When you’re willing to share wins and losses, successes and failures, you’ll build more trust and loyalty among your core customers. In this way, being weak will make you stronger.”

“Vulnerability + Accessibility = Transparency”

“Organizations must challenge the outdated thinking that creates protected silos of information. Instead, they must enter into the new normal of business that gives away as much as possible without compromising the ability to operate.”

Authenticity Attracts

“Authenticity is the act of telling people what you believe and care about, not telling them what you think they want you to believe or care about.”

“You must identify which parts of you make you who you are and which parts should remain flexible. Name your nonnegotiables. These are the timeless components of your company that should never change. What are these elements of your organizational personality that aren’t for sale? Once you know what is not negotiable, you’ll be able to evolve without selling out. There is a difference between innovating and compromising. Learn to do the former while avoiding the latter.”

Quality Speaks

“quality builds credibility”

“One way to ensure that you are pursuing a high level of excellence is by creating a culture of evaluation and feedback. Quality isn’t what you say it is, it’s what they say it is.”

“Quality means listening, responding, and making changes quickly.”

Generosity Returns

“Generosity is not something an organization does; it’s something an organization is. Many companies get into trouble because they don’t understand the difference.”

“Generosity should be selfless, not conditional.”

“If you are waiting for the perfect time to give, it will never happen–because the ‘perfect time’ is a myth, a fairy tale, a legend. There will always be constraints, barriers, and good excuse not to pursue generosity. You’ll always have salaries and bills and vendors to pay. So if you’re waiting for the perfect time, your wallet will win again and again.”

Courage Sustains

“Courage is having the strength of character to persist and hold on to ideas in the face of opposition, fear, and high costs.”

“The most powerful people are your customers. These people can put you out of business or propel you to unimaginable heights. They are either your lifeblood or your lethal injection.”

“It’s beautiful when your work is not just work, but actually a purpose.”

“Think before you take on investors, and consider every hire carefully, no matter how ‘insignificant’ you think the position might be.”

“And remember, just because they are great people doesn’t mean they are the right great people.”

“So you be you and not what you do. Always remember that your identity is not your job title or list of professional accomplishments.”

“You should love your work, but don’t fall in love with it. You should enjoy your work, but don’t grow obsessed with it.”